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THE CLOUD INSTITUTE FOR SUSTAINABILITY EDUCATION
(formerly The Sustainability Education Center, Inc.)


Organization Directory Page

• Organization description

• Source of official student records

• Titles of all evaluated learning experiences

• Descriptions and credit recommendations

The Cloud Institute for Sustainability Education, formerly the Sustainability Education Center, was created in response to the growing need for educational materials and professional development focused on sustainability. First founded as a program of The American Forum for Global Education, the organization was spun off and became independent in July of 2002. While continually expanding its range of products and services, The Cloud Institute builds on twenty-eight years of program expertise in global and environmental education, technical assistance, curriculum and professional development.

The Cloud Institute monitors the evolving thinking and skills of the most important champions of sustainability, and transforms them into educational materials and a pedagogical system that inspire young people to think about the world, their relationship to it, and their ability to influence it in an entirely new way. They are the premier organization that equips school systems K-12 and their communities with the core content, competencies and habits of mind that characterize education for a sustainable future. They do this by inspiring teachers and engaging students through meaningful content and student-centered instruction. They believe that K-12 education can substantially influence beliefs, attitudes, values and behaviors related to sustainability. This is the most fertile ground for helping to shape a society committed to sustainable development.

The goal of sustainability education is to ensure that present and future generations attain a high degree of economic security and social equity, create and ensure democratic participation in their communities and globally, and maintain the health of the ecological systems upon which all life and all production depend.

The Institute pilots its programs and materials in NYC public and private schools before extending them nationally and internationally. Since its inception, the Institute has developed a number of curriculum units and courses of study in education for sustainability including: The Paper Trail: Connecting Economic and Natural Systems; From Global Hunger to Sustainable Food Systems; Changing Consumption Patterns; Inventing the Future: Leadership & Participation in the 21st Century, Ecological Economics for Life; and Business and Entrepreneurship Education for the 21st Century.

Source of official student records: Program Department, The Cloud Institute for Sustainability Education, 307 Seventh Avenue, Suite 1201, New York, New York  10001.

Titles of evaluated learning experiences

Mathematics for Global Change (MGC)
Sustainability Education for Educators (SEE)

Descriptions and credit recommendations

Mathematics for Global Change (MGC)
Location: Approved locations throughout the United States.
Length: 60 hours (2 weeks).
Dates: July 1996 - May 2004.
Objectives: Discuss how polynomial roots can be formed as fixed points; solve difference equations via spreadsheet; discuss classical ecological systems and generalizations; discuss how some linear systems can be solved by iteration; evaluate economic ideas to iteration and integration; describe entropy and its role in dynamic modeling; generalize from intermediate systems to allegory ones; apply mathematics to the study of global environmental change.
Instruction: This course provides elementary and secondary school teachers the opportunity to investigate the use of spreadsheets and computer modeling programs to help their students understand system dynamics, the current challenges of population dynamics, and resource consumption. The goal is to assist teachers in using technology in the development of a meaningful sustainability curriculum. The course explores the role mathematicians have played in creating world history and the ways in which mathematics has interacted with human thought and ideology. Topics covered include applications of Euclidean geometry to astronomy, a sense of scale for environmental change and celestial change, the Copernican revolution, models for change, feats of inference, iterative solution of polynomial equations, exponential and logistic growth, chaos, iterative solution of difference equations, population dynamics, systems thinking, open and closed systems; energy flow (thermodynamics), the global system, models from microeconomics, resource modeling, models from macroeconomics, and ecological economics. Participants work with examples from the fields of ecology, economics, biology, physics and thermodynamics on a range of mathematical levels using hand calculators, Stella II (a powerful and flexible simulation modeling software package), and spreadsheets to reinforce and apply the underlying mathematical ideas. Each topic is presented in the context of teacher-oriented materials prepared prior to the start of the course. Course participants discuss the integration of the materials presented in the course into the school curriculum and develop substantial computer-based projects focused on how they can integrate the course concepts into their own lessons. Class presentations of these projects conclude the course.
Credit recommendation: In the graduate degree category, 4 semester hours in Mathematics or Education (5/99).

Sustainability Education for Educators (SEE)
Location: Approved locations throughout the United States.
Length: 45 hours (several sessions over 5 weeks or intensive summer program).
Dates: January 2000 - October 2005.
Objectives: Discuss the relationship among science, technology, and sustainability; explore the environmental impacts of consumerism; examine the relationship among people, places, and the environment; develop interdisciplinary problem-solving strategies; explore the connections between school subjects and current community, national, and global concerns; discuss ways that humanity can secure a rich quality of life for all within the means of nature; develop interdisciplinary and systems thinking; integrate rigorous content material and performance-based strategies into lessons and units; facilitate participants’ abilities to work with students to develop academically while contributing to a healthy economy, ecology, and community; evaluate existing content material and curricula relating to current community, national, and global concerns for use with students; create effective curricula appropriate for the teachers’ students and learning environments that communicate sustainability content and create sustainability skills.
Instruction: This course provides teachers with an opportunity to explore a broad range of issues and topics that help them integrate current economic, social, and environmental concerns into their classrooms: the planet’s basic physical requirements, climate change, biodiversity, ecological economics, sustainable development, the psychology of consumption, environmental history, our connection to place. Participants explore ways of engaging their students, through activities, content, and skills development, with the many pressing issues currently compromising quality of life for the world’s peoples and the quality of the planet’s ecosystems. Content experts work together with master teachers to create accurate, teacher-friendly presentations with classroom applications. The course encourages interdisciplinary thinking and provides participants with sound and innovative instructional materials and practices. In addition, relevant and timely resource and content materials are distributed. Course participants keep journals, evaluate and reflect upon presentations, complete additional readings, host a visit from course instructors to investigate the development and use of program content and curriculum at their school site, and prepare a final curriculum unit for implementation in the classroom. Performance is evaluated on the basis of a rubric, which is made available to participants at the beginning of the course.
Credit recommendation: In the graduate degree category, 3 semester hours in Environmental Science, Social Science, or Education (10/00).

Updated 2/9/06


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